NCAA Tourney Thread (UPDATE: UK Opens Against Abilene Christian Thursday at 7:00)

[Jload]

Do not want to play Duke anywhere, unless in Final Four. They beat us in humiliating fashion once this season, let’s play somebody else.

[lilproUK98]

I'm not sure we'll necessarily avoid Duke and UNC if we beat Tennessee. Could still see either as our 2 (assuming we lock into a 1 by winning the UT game).

Neither will go to D.C. with Virginia. (Actually, Virginia could theoretically be the #1 in Louisville with Carolina or Duke as the 1 in Washington.) Obviously neither is going to Anaheim. The only other option is Kansas City, but one of the Big 10 teams is going to be there as either the 2 or the 1.

There's still a decent chance we get one of those teams regardless of what happens this weekend.

I'm not sure about Carolina. On one hand you hate the rematch games because they give the other team something to play for in March. But I maintain that Carolina might not make it out to the Elite 8. They play nutty, at times brainless basketball.

Duke is obviously a juggernaut if things go the right way but my feeling is if they're good enough to win it you're going to get them somewhere late in the tourney. Might as well be in Louisville.

I agree with all of this.

[40bill]

I don't know if Duke is avoidable. Not if we are thinking final four and more.
i think one of the three ACC teams is a certain game.

[lilproUK98]

Funny thing is, if we don't get Duke in Louisville, I'd LOVE for it to be in the Championship Game. I feel like we would handle the pressure much better than they would. I like guys like Tyler, PJ, Reid, and even Ashton in that situation. Duke already can't shoot from the outside.

[Joneslab]

Duke presents a tough match-up for Kentucky (as we horrifically witnessed in November).

We wouldn't be beaten by 30-something points again but I think it would be tough for UK simply because Duke, with Zion, is one of the more athletic teams in the history of the game. They almost assault you athletically: they rebound on both ends, they block shots, they bother shots, and they push the ball. It's very hard to deal with their athletes.

UK does a lot of things well but we don't have a lot of high fliers. We're more of a power team. When the game gets gritty we usually do pretty well. We also really need to be able to beat teams down the floor to get easy shots when the game gets free-flowing. If teams outsprint us and get back you'll notice we have issues.

I'm not saying we couldn't beat Duke but they're not the best match-up for us. I think this is why we played so well against Carolina: they're much more in line with the type of team we could have success against.

[Joneslab]

^ Although having said all that I think the kind of game Duke loses is one where they go 4-22 from three.

To beat them you also have to take charges. Duke's three stars will charge relentlessly if you've got guys brave enough to stand in there.

[lilproUK98]

^ Although having said all that I think the kind of game Duke loses is one where they go 4-22 from three.

To beat them you also have to take charges. Duke's three stars will charge relentlessly if you've got guys brave enough to stand in there.

That's one thing we really don't do...and I would hope Cal would tell the team to focus on doing that. I'm not saying I want to meet them, but if we do I hope it's either in the Championship game or in Louisville.

[Joneslab]

With the exception of Dominique Hawkins and Deandre Liggins, Kentucky hasn't been good at taking charges in the Cal era. He'd much rather his guys try to block shots.

This team, last year's team, and the Bam team would've probably been better served to set up for more charges. When you don't have high-flying rim protectors you have to compensate somehow.

Although I will say that Reid Travis has been a better defender than I thought. He's so strong I think he just muscles people when they try to drive him, and it's hard to operate against those guys. He had a big game against Duke the first time and if Bolden is done (Bolden really damaged us in that first game, but so did everybody else) Travis could be a key.

But this Kentucky team, while very good, isn't the sort of team that you can kind of look ahead with and plan on them going deep. They're probably similar to that Bam/Monk/Fox team in that I expect them to go far but it's not going to be a cakewalk for them. They're the type of team that has to really get after it defensively and if they don't they are very beatable. Hagans also has to be Good Hagans for Kentucky to have any chance at all.

[Lighthouse]

Louisville just lost to UNC. Watching now to see if Zion plays tonight.

[Joneslab]

Zion is such a devastating player that when he's in, Duke looks like a machine. When he's out, Duke looks really beatable.

The force and explosiveness of his jumping ability alone makes him almost impossible to handle for a lot of these college players. They just can't deal with him when he goes up in the air.

[Joneslab]

Zion Williamson is basically what would happen if you took a player starting on an NBA team and having a pretty good year and put him on a college team.

Shockingly good. As a team, however, Duke hasn't looked great against Syracuse.

[KCKUKFan]

Zion is a beastly basketball player and can single-handedly carry Duke to a title.

But they still don't look unbeatable. Far from it, actually.

[40bill]

Amazing young player. Passion, joy of the game and nearly unstoppable. He could well carry the Devil's all the way.

[lilproUK98]

As of now the thought seems to be that UK/UT (if it happens) is for South 1 seed, and Duke/UNC is for Midwest 1 seed. Virginia is East 1 seed. Loser of UNC/Duke would go West with Gonzaga. Tennessee would be 2 seed in East. And winner of Big Ten tournament (as long as it's Michigan or Michigan State) would be our 2 seed.

So it would be:

East: Virginia-Tennessee
South: Kentucky-Michigan or Michigan St.
Midwest: UNC or Duke-Michigan or Michigan State
West: Gonzaga-Duke or UNC


Best case scenario for UK.

[Lighthouse]

I wonder where LSU's loss will drop them?